The path to research leadership in Africa and India

Dr Judy Omumbo, Senior Programme Manager

Dr Judy Omumbo is a vector-borne disease epidemiologist and climate change enthusiast and researcher. Her experience has been in supporting evidence based decision making in the health sector by interfacing with stakeholders, scientists, development partners and donors in ministries of health, national malaria control programmes, WHO-AFRO, African medical research institutes, and national meteorological departments, primarily within the Greater Horn of Africa, to develop strong research collaborations.

She is passionate about mentorship and career development of African early career researchers and climate change researcher and enthusiast. She currently manages a pan-African fellowship programme that supports Africa postdoctoral researchers to grow in research leadership in their home countries and conduct research and innovation that addresses African priorities for sustainable development.

Clare Viney, CEO, The Careers Research and Advisory Centre, Vitae

Clare took up the role of Chief Executive Officer of CRAC in October 2016. A strategic leader with over 20 years' advocacy, policy and external affairs experience, Clare is a Chartered Scientist and Chemist with extensive experience in the science community and not-for-profit sector. She is passionate about investing in future generations and those from diverse backgrounds and experiences, empowering people to realise their potential and achieve their career and development goals. CRAC manages the Vitae Programme in higher education, strengthening institutional provision for the professional development of researchers through research and innovation, training and resources, events, consultancy and membership

Prior to her role at CRAC, Clare was with the Royal Society of Chemistry for 16 years in a variety of roles in membership, fundraising, science policy, communications and latterly leading Membership and External Affairs. Her role ensured that the Royal Society of Chemistry remains the most influential voice for chemistry in the UK, Europe and beyond.

Dr Jose Jackson-Malete, Co-Director, the Alliance for African Partnerships, Michigan State University

José Jackson-Malete is the Co-Director of the Alliance for African Partnership (AAP), a consortium of 10 universities in East, West and Southern Africa, a regional Agricultural Policy Think Tank and Michigan State University (MSU). She has over 25 years of experience working in universities and the private sector in Africa, the US and the Caribbean. She has Chemistry and Food Science degrees from the University of the West Indies, Cornell University and Michigan State University, respectively.

Over the past decade, she has been involved in strengthening the research eco-systems in Africa and has worked extensively in supporting early career researchers around facilitating the development of mentoring and other programs for career advancement. She initiated and leads the African Futures Research Leadership program for the AAP consortium that supports the advancement of early career African women researchers and links them to mentors at MSU and their African home institution. She was the President of the Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association (SARIMA), and is a member of the International Professional Recognition Council (IPRC) that regulates the professionalization of research management in Africa.

Professor Narendra Kumar Arora, Executive Director, The INCLEN Trust International

Dr Narendra Kumar Arora is the Executive Director of The INCLEN Trust International (INCLEN), an organization focused on fostering research and training to address Health Challenges particularly in low and middle income countries, since 2005. Prior to this assignment, he worked as a faculty member in Paediatrics at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. In 2018, he was appointed President, AIIMS-Patna and AIIMS-Deoghar, (two new National Institutions of Eminence) to steer these to national centers of excellence in clinical care, research, and training.

Dr Arora is a seasoned policy maker, senior researcher and public health practitioner committed to the cause of improvement of health of the community. He has led multi center research studies which have contributed significantly to improvement of immunization programs in India, notable among which are the house-to-house immunization during the pulse-polio program since 2000, formulation of the under-served strategy as part of the road map to polio-eradication, and introduction of auto-disabled syringes in the public immunization sector. He has provided leadership to national and international policy making bodies with focus on maternal and child health.

Dr Archisman Mohapatra, Advisor, Leadership and Management Programme (LAMP), The INCLEN Trust International

An epidemiologist and public health expert, Dr Mohapatra has expertise in designing and managing multi-partner networks and multi-site epidemiological research projects and in grantsmanship, and has rich experience of working in focused research and policy translation environments.

Dr Mohapatra has been involved in several research projects that have translated into national policy (e.g., RBSK, PSBI guidelines, National Research Priority Setting Exercise). He managed the network for the DBT funded AADAR Dementia Science Program - a unique long-term commitment to research in the elderly, and the 'Scoping the Path to Leadership in Health Research in India' funded by Wellcome. Dr. Mohapatra completed his MBBS from SCB Medical College, Cuttack and MD in Community Medicine from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. He has additional training in General Management from Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, Kerala, India.

Dr Catherine Kyobutungi, Executive Director, African Population and Health Research Center

Catherine was previously served as the Center’s Director of Research and Head of the research Unit on Health and Systems for Health. Catherine has a medical background and is a trained epidemiologist with research interests in the interface between Non-Communicable Diseases and Health Systems Strengthening. She has led research projects on the epidemiology of NCD risk factors in Kenya, and designed and tested service delivery models for resource-constrained settings such as slum settings. She has also conducted research on the policy context for NCD prevention in several African countries. Catherine is a strong advocate for the societal benefit of research beyond traditional research outputs. At APHRC, she has strengthened the Center’s approaches to policy engagement and advocacy and supported the development of policy and advocacy models to ensure timely and effective uptake of evidence in decision making.  She has published more than 140 peer-reviewed papers, sits on multiple national and global expert advisory panels.

Catherine is also the co-Director of the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) – Phd and Post-doctoral fellowship Program to strengthen the capacity of eight public Universities in Africa to produce the next generation of African research leaders.

Catherine is a Joep Lange Chair at the University of Amsterdam and is working on Chronic Disease Management as an entry point to make healthcare systems more responsive to NCDs in Africa. She is also a fellow of the African Academy of Sciences.

Dr Shahid Jameel, Visiting Professor, University of Oxford, UK and Visiting Professor, Ashoka University, India

Dr Shahid Jameel studied Chemistry at the Aligarh Muslim University and Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, India and obtained a PhD in Biochemistry at Washington State University, USA. His postdoctoral work in Virology was at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, USA. In 1988 Dr. Jameel set up the Virology Group at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi, India and led it for 25 years, where his research focused on human viruses. He is a recipient of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, which is India’s highest science award, and is also an elected Fellow of all the science academies in India. In 2013 Dr Jameel was appointed as CEO of the DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance, a biomedical research charity based in India. In October 2020 he took over as Founding Director of the Trivedi School of Biosciences at Ashoka University, a leading liberal arts university, where he continues as an Honorary Professor.

Dr Jameel is now the Sultan Qaboos bin Said Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, and a Research Fellow at the Green Templeton College, University of Oxford.